Colour photography of the submerged world made its debut in 1923, when botanist W.H. Longley worked with photographer Charles Martin who generally took pictures on non-moving subjects. He had a picture featured in the July 1927 issue of National Geographic of a hogfish. The lens was of 38mm focal length and with a maximum aperture of f/2.8. A ring around the lens optic itself was used to set the film speed (ISO 25 to 400), which was indicated on a small window on the front of the lens assembly; also there, but below the lens optic itself, was the cadmium sulfide (CdS) photoresistor for the light meter. The location of this, inside the filter ring of the lens, meant that the meter would function accurately even with filters fitted to the lens. He would descend into the water wearing a heavy diving suit, the ones with the metal bulb head gear. His efforts produced work which was published in 1893 and led to the ability to this day for people to see wildlife in its natural habitat right to the lower depths of the sea. He also published a book in 1898 called “La Photographie Sous-Marine” (Underwater Photography) which detailed his underwater photographic work. The book came with many photos taken over the years. Decent sharpness at 50mm from center to corners, comparable to the SLR lens but not quite as good when viewed at 100% of a 24 megapixel scan, and almost indistinguishable at 12 megapixel (roughly 10×8 print size) Sharpness is evenly good throughout the image in the middle of the zoom range.

The whole line of Canon Sure Shot cameras – which ran from 1979 to 2005 and was known as Autoboy in Japan – was designed to give the company a meaty slice of the consumer camera market. There’s no reason to choose the Canon over any of the other underwater point-and-shoot cameras, but there’s also no reason to choose the others over the Canon. This decision may come down to brand loyalty, an aesthetic tingle, or a fondness or loathing for white plastic.The Canon Sureshot Zoom XL wasn’t my first camera, others came before it. I got into film photography shooting a nifty fifty on an Olympus OM body while I was on holiday. I don’t think I even had a battery for the meter. But according to Kirk Mastin’s sage advice I wouldn’t even need one if I shot everything at f4, 1/125 on 400 film in good light. True to his word, the shots were perfect and I fell in love with film. A nice little feature on this camera is the little grey twisting ‘foot’ built into the bottom plate. This allows the camera to be angled upward slightly when placed on a flat surface, for self-portraits. I don’t do selfies, but it does mean you can take floor shots without having the entire bottom of the picture taken up by the floor. Perhaps the Supreme’s biggest tragedy, though, is how close it comes to being a fantastic street shooter. The ergonomic handgrip and shutter release position make the camera really easy to hold and shoot one-handed and, better still, the film doesn’t advance until you release the button. The advance is not terribly quiet, so this increases the camera’s stealth capability considerably. Or at least it would if you could be sure the flash wasn’t going to go off. I toyed with the idea of fashioning a piece of plastic to keep the flash override permanently pressed, but I don’t really use it enough to justify the effort. Very soft corners at 38mm at what I assume must be wide open. I’m talking about quite a bit of mush here. However, centre sharpness is respectable wide open. And the corners become acceptable once the lens stops down, but still a bit soft. Mild pincushion distortion. 100%ish crop. The corners are dreadful at what I think is pretty much wide open…

Use Flash On mode whenever shooting underwater, or when seeking to soften shadows on subjects in bright light (see my examples of my daughter’s portrait at the beach). Flash Off should be used in low light situations (this mode will force the camera to make a long exposure), or in places where flash photography is prohibited (will I take this camera to Disney World? Probably). Red Eye Reduction Auto mode is the standard shooting mode in which the camera does all of the work – most people will use this setting exclusively. And the Underwater Macro mode is for shooting fishies whenever they swim between 1.5 and 3.3 feet away from your face.Did I expect to enjoy it so much?No, I thought it would be some fun, but it was that, and a whole lot more. The quality that it produces is way beyond what I expected and for such a low price. If you have a chance to buy one, jump on it, regardless of the name printed on it. Buy it, use it, and if you have more than one camera, keep it in your rotation during summer. Metering Range (at ISO 100) – Flash Auto and Flash On modes 1/60 f/3.5-1/250 f/22 (EV9.5-17); Flash Off mode 2 seconds f/3.5-1/250 f/22 (EV3-17) According to the manual, only ISO 100, 200, or 400 DX-coded film should be loaded into the Sure Shot, which will then automatically set the shutter speed accordingly; between 1/45 and 1/180.